METHODS FOR THE STUDY OF THE POPULATION BIOLOGY OF VESICULAR-ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZAL FUNGI

This chapter emphasizes methods for measuring populations and understanding the behavior of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi growing in association with plants and soil in field-based, glasshouse or laboratory studies. The methods are a basis for developing procedures for each set of circumstances for vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to affect a role contributing to the production of crops. Plants on revegetation sites or to species abundance and speciation of natural plant populations, they must influence the survival, growth or reproductive output of their hosts. The effects of mycorrhiza on plant development are greatly influenced by the timing and amount of mycorrhiza formation. The chapter further describes propagule phase. An individual mycelium arising from a discrete propagule such as a spore can be distinguished at an early stage in colonization of roots. At later stages, all the colonization by a fungus in a root or roots of a plant would have to be regarded as a unit if there are no markers to distinguish the mycelium. The same reasoning applies to extraradical (extramatrical) hyphae. This is a necessary simplification of differentiating individuals for some life-history stages of fungi for the present. Propagule germination or regrowth and interception of roots and colony formation are also illustrated. © 1992 Academic Press Limited